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  • Essay / The folklore of poverty and social justice in Appalachia, a region in the eastern United States of America

    In many areas of Appalachia, poverty is widespread in everyday society, from family life looking for a job. This compelling theme of life in Appalachia has led to poverty and social justice being intertwined in various folk tales and aspects of popular life. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original EssayIn the past, folklore was generally used to describe a culture that is not modern and stuck in the Old World. Some believed that modernization was tainting traditional folklore and actively avoided it. However, over time this way of thinking evolved into folklore representing the experiences of normal, ordinary people in the New World and modernization was legitimized as having a legitimate place in the study of folklore. He is able to give voice to underrepresented cultural groups to enact the change seen in the ballads created by miners who expressed their disdain at the idea of ​​being replaced by machines in the coal mines. The Jack Tales are one of the primary folk tales told in Appalachia. These tails usually involve a young hero named Jack who must overcome many obstacles using his intelligence and sometimes cunning. Jack also had a strange streak of luck which was featured in various tales. The obstacles he faces generally relate to the harsh realities many people face in Appalachia, such as poverty. Jack's tales are not like traditional American fairy tales in the sense that honesty and hard work are not the main characteristics of Jack's tales. In the video “Searching for My Appalachia: A Modern Jack Tale,” speaker Kevin Cordi discusses the perceptions of people who were stricken by poverty in his section of Appalachia, West Virginia. He talks about how his family couldn't afford the best clothes and how a kid named Nathan noticed Kevin Cordi's holey jeans and called him a "dirty hillbilly." Not knowing what that meant, he went to ask his mother and she told him that sometimes it was easier to assume what someone was like than to take the time to get to know them. He describes another situation where his younger sister asked their mother to pick them up from the back of the school because she didn't want the other children to see the yellow 1977 Ford Station Wagon, for fear of be confused with a bad red neck. » . Kevin Cordi later discovered, while talking to a supposed "redneck", where the term came from. In West Virginia in the 1930s, miners wore red scarves to show solidarity against mine owners and how sharecroppers in the 1800s received a red neck for all their hard work. The man then proposed to Kevin Cordi: "Since when did dirt get a bad name?" » These examples illustrate how the stereotype of Appalachia being backward, uneducated, or impure stems from simple ignorance and a lack of desire to actually know them. people for who they really are. The story “Jack Goes Hunting” describes the efforts Jack had to make to get food. In the story, Jack lived in a small house in the mountains with his parents and did little to help them. Jack's family didn't have much money so they had to hunt animals for food. One day, Jack's father got tired of Jack not helping him at all and.